as in features
formal
the appearance of a person's face; a person's facial features
He and his son have the same distinctive physiognomy.
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Recent Examples of physiognomy
Kahn presents an extraordinary panoply of European, African, and Latin faces — physiognomies that instantly convey a liberal democracy in conflict.
—
Armond White, National Review, 6 Sep. 2024
Guston’s first comic for The Junior Times, a sparse strip drawn at age 12, introduced Little Snowball, a Black youth bearing exaggerated racial physiognomy and dialect.
—Walker Mimms, New York Times, 4 June 2024
Her husband would catch her staring clinically at his physiognomy.
—Dan Piepenbring, Harper's Magazine, 9 Jan. 2024
And, of course, there was the perennial punch line of physiognomy: sight gags, sketches, and songs that depicted Jewish bodies as misshapen and absurd.
—Jody Rosen, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2023
See All Example Sentences for physiognomy
Armond White, National Review, 6 Sep. 2024
Guston’s first comic for The Junior Times, a sparse strip drawn at age 12, introduced Little Snowball, a Black youth bearing exaggerated racial physiognomy and dialect.
—Walker Mimms, New York Times, 4 June 2024
Her husband would catch her staring clinically at his physiognomy.
—Dan Piepenbring, Harper's Magazine, 9 Jan. 2024
And, of course, there was the perennial punch line of physiognomy: sight gags, sketches, and songs that depicted Jewish bodies as misshapen and absurd.
—Jody Rosen, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2023
See All Example Sentences for physiognomy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for physiognomy
Noun
-
But erasing too much personal and private information from the internet could backfire as screening tools like Tofu use that information to verify you’re a real person.—
Maria Gracia Santillana Linares,
Forbes.com,
2 Aug. 2025
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But such laws are only effective if the individual demonstrated warning signs so that others can alert law enforcement and initiate the process of revoking the person’s firearm, Chittum said.—
Josh Campbell,
CNN Money,
2 Aug. 2025
Noun
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The man accused of stabbing to death two people who were hiking at Devil’s Den State Park on Saturday was ordered held without bond and appointed an attorney at a brief first appearance hearing Friday at the Washington County Detention Center.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
1 Aug. 2025
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Ahead of the fest closers, Gracie Abrams wowed fans with a surprise appearance from Robyn, Cage the Elephant paid tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, and many more artists made waves.—
Althea Legaspi,
Rolling Stone,
1 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Physiognomy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/physiognomy. Accessed 6 Aug. 2025.
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